By the time Tropical Depression Bill hit the DFW Metroplex like most of the DMN staff I was tired of capturing rain photos. Between all the rain and flood photos captured last month I wanted to photograph something different.

Recently, Olympus invited me to take their new camera, the OM-D E-M5 MarkII and a few of their Pro lenses out for a “test drive”. The camera is a mirrorless Micro Four Thirds camera that shares the lens mount with Panasonic. Both the camera and lenses feel solid and I must say I’m very impressed.

It took me a few days to get a handle on the menu system. At first I found the menu system very counterintuitive. But after a day or two customizing the camera for my style of shooting I realized something. The menu isn’t counterintuitive, you just have so many ways to customize the camera that the menu system is just overwhelming. Continue reading →

Logan Hamby, left, photographs Alberto Inurrigarro being "attacked" by Shawn Fan as Jedi Olaf at the Dallas Comic Con Fan Days at the Irving Convention Center Saturday February 7, 2015. Jedi Olaf is a character from the Frozen and Star Wars universes.

After 33 years as a photojournalist I’m often asked what my favorite event is to cover. I don’t have a top favorite but the cosplayers at the Comic Cons are definitely near the top of the list. I’m always amazed at the work and imagination that the participants put into their costumes and characters. For example, at the con on February 7, I met Jedi Olaf, a character that Shawn Fan created from two universes: Star Wars and Frozen. That’s a combination I can honestly say I never would have thought of.

Mandy Roberts as Harley Quinn at the Dallas Comic Con Fan Days Irving Convention Center Saturday February 7, 2015. She planned to enter the Costume Contest but missed the prejudging to enter the contest.

Usually we cover the Costume Contest but I’ve learned over the years that not all cosplayers enter the contest, so I allow myself several hours to wander the con in search of costumes and characters. This year I met Mandy Roberts as Harley Quinn on one of the escalators at the Irving Convention Center. She planned to enter the contest but missed the prejudging.

Tony Jantz of Arlington as the 1st Doctor Who at the Dallas Comic Con Fan Days in Irving, Texas last October.

Cosplayer Tony Jantz of Arlington, who attended the last two Comic Cons and has been dressing in costumes for years said, “We do it because it’s a lot of fun to be someone else for a day or so, sometimes 3 days in a row. And we have lots of friends that we meet wherever we go, so that adds to it. Being able to make someone’s day for dressing as their favorite character is over the top!”

John Stephenson's antics as Lego Hulk causes Event Emcee Devin Pike to laugh at the Dallas Comic Con Fan Days Costume Contest last October

Devin Pike, Event Emcee / Cosplay Ambassador, said “Cosplay and costuming (and there’s a difference between the two) allows fans to create their own takes on their favorite characters. These people are doing it themselves, with no armies of prop and makeup specialists crafting their looks, armour and uniforms. People love to see their favorite characters in person, and it’s a great bit of synchronicity.”

I usually shoot the cosplay costume contest with two camera bodies and a handful of fast prime lenses. Traveling light prevents your camera gear from getting tangled up in a wing span or a weapon, which is definitely not recommended.

For me it’s a chance to be with what my wife calls, “Your People”. I’ve been a sci-fi and comic book fan since as long as I can remember. I love going up to a person wearing a Fez and saying “Fez’s are Cool” (from Doctor Who) or someone dressed as a Klingon from Star Trek and giving the Klingon salute and say “Qapla”, which roughly translates as success.

On my 33rd anniversary of being a photojournalist I posted a photo on Facebook of me in my darkroom at The Irving Daily News. Looking at the photo made me realize how much technology has changed over the years.

When I started out in the business, film and printing was all in black-and-white. I used a bulk film loader to roll film into canisters by hand. Film and print processing was also done by hand. My deadline was 6 p.m, when a runner picked up my prints and took them to the printing plant.

When the powers that be decided to switch to color, I first shot Ektachrome transparency film. We needed to use an outside lab to process it, so color wasn’t used every day. At some point later I started to process the film myself.

After that we moved to shooting color negative film and making prints to size, again by hand, first using Kodak’s Ektaprint EP-2 system, then the Beseler print drum system.

In 1986 the DFW Suburban Newspapers moved into one location in Arlington, and we were still developing color negative and b&w film by hand.

When The Dallas Times Herald closed we picked up a Wing Lynch film processor from them. Then we got a Kreonite photo printer, and finally film and prints were processed with the help of machines. The time saved was amazing.

The newspapers shared the building with a printing company and they started to use a Leaf scanner to scan images and digitize them for their clients. When we started to use the scanner as well, our only chemical-based processing left was for the film itself.

I think I got my first digital camera in the late 1990s. Needless to say digital cameras and photojournalism are made for each other. I can’t remember the last time I shot film.

Nowadays the digital camera I use has built-in WiFi, which means I can take a photo and use the wifi feature to get the image over to my iPhone, and from there add metadata and send the image straight to our servers and/or social media, the web, etc.

A pedestrian walks across the plaza in front of Dallas City Hall as a light snow covered most of the Metroplex on February 6, 2014.

I have two favorite photographs from 2014. First one was from a light snowfall in February. There was just enough snow that fell on February 6 to make the morning commute very unpleasant. I live in south Arlington, and the drive on a good day is about 35-40 minutes long to downtown Dallas. On the morning of the 6th I went to University of Texas at Arlington to get photos of the students battling the elements for morning web publishing. I wasn’t completely satisfied with the images since the only way to show the snowfall was from the top floor of a parking garage. I decided to drive to downtown Dallas and after a 90-minute drive I arrived. The photo desk was still calling for snow images so I went to City Hall to view the skyline from the Flag Room. The snowfall covering was thin in Dallas as well. After waiting for a while I noticed a pedestrian walking to the building directly beneath me and that’s when I captured the image.

Last week at the DFW Photo Expo 2014 I was able to play with Panasonic’s DMC-LX100. The camera is a little bit bigger than my iPhone 5. It has a micro FourThirds sensor, comes with 24-75mm Leica DC lens (F1.7-2.8), compared with a full frame 35mm format. The camera has full manual or automatic exposure settings. It also does 4Kvideo. You can download images to your smart phone and tablet through the built in WiFi feature.

The camera handles like a dream and is just fun to use. The metal frame gives it a solid feel. One feature that will come in handy is the eye level EVF for bright light as well as the traditional LCD screen.

Lumix LX100 compared to my iPhone5 and a SD card. Comes with the flash unit.

When I started taking pictures, all those many moons ago, one of the first accessories I purchased was a set of extension tubes for macro photography. The tubes were one of the few items that I could afford. Extension tubes, unlike macro lenses, have no optics in them. The tube moves the lens away from the image plane, or if you still shoot film, the film plane. The further you move the lens away from the image plane, the closer the focus and the greater the magnification. Continue reading →

Nirvana. Every photographer has one: a favorite subject or event to cover. For fellow staffer Louis DeLuca, it is baseball. For me, it is the Dallas Comic Con. The day started off with a press conference with some of the actors who were at the three-day event. For the video, I used a Panasonic GH4 with the 12-35mm and 35-100mm set up for video. At the CosPlay Masquerade I added the GX7 plus a few Olympus prime lenses. Continue reading →

A pedestrian walks across the plaza in front of Dallas City Hall as snow covered most of the DFW metroplex in early February of 2014. (Ron Baselice/ The Dallas Morning News)

A year ago or so I switched from using the Canon EOS system to the micro Four Thirds mirrorless system, specifically the Panasonic Lumix GH3 and later the Panasonic Lumix GX7. The GH3 is designed as a true hybrid camera that can shoot both still and video, not a DSLR that also does a video. Continue reading →

I didn’t have any scheduled assignments so I decided to look for weather art or a weather photo. Sometimes inclement weather makes for striking and if we are lucky, dramatic images. Today’s weather was just cold with wind. I had my work cut out for me. Continue reading →

My photography mentor, the late George H. Townsend, once told me if you are ever feeling stagnant in your photography pick up a new lens or camera body. I took his advice and added the mirrorless Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7 to my photographic arsenal. Continue reading →

Yesterday I was asked to find a feature photo about the winter weather North Texas has been having lately. I drove around downtown Dallas for the better part of an hour without much luck. While trying to get warm in my car I noticed the patterns of a nearby building reflected in the rain drops. You could tell the image in the raindrops was of a building, but not what building or where. I realized I needed a more recognizable object in the the rain drops for my photograph to work. Continue reading →

Earlier this month I was surfing Google + and in the the Panasonic Lumix GX7 Photography circle Mathieu Gasquet of MirrorLessons ask if anyone used the GX7 on the job. When I replied I did, he ask if I could be part of a series on professionals who use mirrorless cameras on the job. Here is the link to my interview.

The Holy Grail among photographers, the perfect camera bag or case. I’ve been searching for one for my Panasonic Lumix system for several months. I wanted a bag or case that would hold 2 Panasonic Lumix GH3 bodies, one dedicated to video and one for stills, plus a Mac laptop.

I originally bought a LowePro backback, but after a week I realized it was way to small. My daughter now has a very nice way to carry her Cannon T4i now.

While searching for the ideal case or bag, I pulled out an original F-2 Domke Bag that’s been in my closet for years. (In fact the bag is older than Sarah Hoffman, one of our current DMN interns). The system fit but it was a tight fit, plus a bag that was over 20 years old had no place for a laptop.

I’ve been using the Panasonic Lumix GH3 for both still and video assignments for The Dallas Morning News for the last several months. I originally bought the camera to shoot video. The camera is half the size and weight of my Canon DSLR’s, and it auto focuses accurately in video mode. But the camera has a feature with potential that I didn’t realize until I started to use the camera for stills — built in WiFi. With this feature , not only can I control the camera remotely but transfer still images from the camera to my iPhone in minutes. Continue reading →

The Hipstamatic App on my iPhone 4 give clouds an ominous look to Big Tex on the opening day of the State Fair at Texas September 28, 2012. Jane Lens with the BlacKeyes SuperGrain Film was the combo used for this photo. (Ron Baselice/The Dallas Morning News)

You can click here to see a slideshow of all our Photos of the Day from the State Fair of Texas.

When I first bought the Olloclip for my iPhone, my original intention was to use the wide angle end of the unit for to shoot on the job for The Dallas Morning News and dallasnews.com.

The Olloclip is a small double lens unit that fits over the iPhone. The wide angle lens almost doubles the field of view. I have used it several times in the last few months. The unit also has a fisheye lens, which I’m not a big fan of. In my opinion the fish eye lens is overused. Continue reading →

It is said that the best camera is the one you have with you. This has been more evident to me since I got the iPhone 4. All the staffers at the DMN have one. It is used for spot news to shoot both still photos and videos to get images in quickly for our web and mobile platforms.

Since getting the iPhone I have also used it as a tool for getting at least one still image a day. This is a personal visual exercise that keeps me thinking in a still photo mode, since I mostly shoot video. I started this process originally with an Olympus EP-1, but soon switched over to the iPhone just for the convenience and the apps available.

Caption: Random Strawberry, January 1, 2012. Shot with the Hipstamatic App with the John S Lens,Ina’s 1969 Film, No Flash combo.

Caption: Foggy Morning, October 24, 2011. Two Mansfield Summit students make their way across a foggy parking lot on the way to school. Saw this after I dropped my youngest daughter off at school.

That’s where the fun comes in. So far my favorite app is Hipstamatic. I love the different lens and film combinations. This app is the closest I get to my vision when I see a subject. One rule I follow is I don’t manipulate the image in Photoshop. I use the app to give me the image I want.

Caption: Texting, February 14, 2012, Again with the Hipstamatic App, this time Helga Viking Lens, BlacKeys SuperGrain Film, No Flash combo. Reminds me of the 1970′s Tri-x black and white film.

I might photograph a shadow, or an unusual object. While running an errand I saw a Sponge Bob slipper in the parking lot of the local The Home Depot. I got a few “Sir, are you all right?” questions from fellow patrons as I was lying on the ground trying to find the best angle.

This can be especially embarrassing for my 14 year old when I find an image I have to capture when she is with me. But it’s all in the name of art, right? ☺

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Photo blog is the official blog of The Dallas Morning News’ Photography staff. Our mission is to create an informal community of readers who are interested in all aspects of still photography and video.